Harry Potter and the Day of Reckoning
by Rin Lover
Summary: It's a seventh year fic with intrigue, suspence, and H/G, R/H, and Luna/OC romance thrown in. CONTAINS OOTP SPOILERS, some of which are major. CH 2 UP!
1. Default Chapter

                                                            HARRY POTTER 

                                                **AND THE DAY OF RECKONING**

****

This is my first Harry Potter fic, so be gentle. Dumbledore say: Man who review is a hankie's tissue. I say: PLEASE REVIEW AND I WILL BE EVER GRATEFUL! Oh, and BTW, this takes place in Harry's seventh year.

**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter and all related indicia belong to J. K. Rowling and various publishing companies. However, I DO own at least one thing, and that's Tom Matthews.

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CHAPTER ONE: THE BEGINNING

            "I cannot stress enough that if you can avoid it, do NOT go outside!" the news anchor exclaimed. "With this madman, Tom Marvolo Riddle, on the loose, it is too dangerous!" With this, they showed a picture of Lord Voldemort.

            "That's him!" Harry burst out. "That's the guy!"

            The Dursleys screamed. "A MAD YOU-KNOW-WHAT!" Uncle Vernon exclaimed. "ON THE LOOSE AROUND LONDON! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!"

            Harry rolled his eyes at the Dursleys' sudden panic. He was currently counting down the seconds to his birthday to himself. _Five, four, three, two, one, happy birthday to me._ He knew the Dursleys would still forget his birthday, and this was confirmed when Aunt Petunia said, "Go outside and get the paper, boy."

            So, he went outside to get the paper. He walked to the end of the drive, picked it up, waved to Mrs. Figg, and then knew no more.

            When he awoke, he was in some kind of dungeon. In fact, it looked suspiciously like the potions classroom at Hogwarts. Now that he thought of it, it WAS the potions classroom at Hogwarts. He looked around and found himself staring into the greasy face of Professor Snape, his least favorite teacher at Hogwarts. He recoiled, his mind racing. _I KNEW it! I knew Snape was a spy! I knew_ ---

            "I am most certainly not a spy," Snape said, interrupting Harry's thoughts. _Damn, I forgot he was a whatchamacallit thingy._

            "What you so nicely refer to as a 'whatchamacallit thingy' is more commonly known as a Legilimen," Snape said, sneering.

            "Right, I forgot," Harry said coldly. "Well, if your not a spy, why am I here?"

            "We, meaning the Order, were forced to abduct you from your home," Snape said. "We were forced to bring you to a safer location. You will spend the rest of the summer here."

            Harry's heart sank. An entire month at Hogwarts with nothing to do and no one to talk to! He surely wouldn't be allowed outside the grounds to Hogsmeade...

            "Oh, stop moaning and groaning, Potter!" Snape snapped (say that one ten times fast). "We brought all of your closest friends here as well, so you couldn't be lured out of Hogwarts too easily."

            "Who's here?" Harry asked quickly.

            Snape glared at him. "From here on, you are to address me as 'Professor' or 'sir', since you are in school."

            "Yes, _sir_," Harry said, spitting out the _sir_ like a curse word. "Anyway, _sir_, who's here?"

            "Miss Hermione Granger, Master Ronald Weasley, Miss Virginia Weasley, Mr. Arthur Weasley, Mrs. Molly Weasley, Mr. Granger, Mrs. Granger, and Miss Lovegood." Snape sneered as he said Luna's name. "I hope you eventually learn to associate with a better crowd, Potter."

            "With all due respect, Professor," Harry said, thinking _over my dead body_, "You don't. You don't even care about me as a weapon against Voldemort," (Snape flinched at the name) "and you don't give a rat's behind as to who I hang out with."

            "I was just giving you a warning, Potter," Snape spat. "Hang around with the daughters of tabloid editors, and you'll find more and more people disbelieving you."

            "Well, I really don't care," Harry said firmly. "Sir."

            "Whatever you say, Potter," Snape said nastily. "Leave. Now."

            "Yes, _sir_," Harry said, already halfway out the door.

            Now that he was out of the dungeon, Harry headed for the Great Hall, where he was bowled over by what seemed to be a couple of blurs, one brown and one red.

            "HARRY!" everyone in the room, with the exception of Luna, who was staring into empty space, exclaimed.

            Luna looked around wildly. "What?" She spotted Harry. "Oh, hello Harry."

            "Hello, Luna, everyone." He looked down, where he could see Hermione and Ginny pinning him down. "Um, guys?" Harry said. "Would ya mind getting off terribly? 'Cause you're crushing me."

            They both said, "Oh, sorry," and got off. They returned to their (knocked over) seats at the Gryffindor house table. Harry walked over and took one himself. As he sat down, he looked around. "I wasn't aware that the Great Hall was set up this early in the year."

            "Oh, of course," said Mrs. Weasley. "It remains set up all year except during O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s."

            "Ah, that explains it," Harry said, realizing something. "Er... Where're all you guys going to stay when everyone arrives?"

            "We'll be going to Grimmauld Place, to Sir---" Mr. Weasley cut himself off and looked apprehensively at Harry.

            "You can say it," Harry said. "I'm okay now." He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Luna was staring at him in a way that made him _very_ edgy.

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Sorry it's so short, but it's just an introductory chapter. Hopefully, the rest will be longer.


	2. A New School Year

Well, did you like the last chapter? I hope so. Here's the next chapter. Of course, you probably already knew that. Anyway, here it is. Oh, and thanks to those who've reviewed! And to those who haven't... I'm not angry. Just disappointed. You're only hurting yourself. And me. Anywho, on with the chapter.

**Disclaimer:** See chapter one.

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CHAPTER TWO: A NEW SCHOOL YEAR

            August was drawing to a close. For the past month, nothing of great importance had happened. The people in Hogwarts kept themselves busy by talking to the others in their general age group.

            But, finally, the school year began. Everybody except the parents went to get seats at their house tables as they heard the thestral-drawn carriages arrive. Within a few minutes, all of the students above first year came stampeding into the Great Hall. Everybody said their hellos and settled in to watch the first years walk in, scared to death.

            Professor McGonagall brought out the dilapidated, yet still functional, Sorting Hat and put it on a stool. Everybody watched with bated breath, waiting for the hat to begin its ritual song.

            The Sorting Hat began. 

_There once was a man named Gryffindor,_

_To him bravery was fore,_

_            If you're brave like him,_

_            It ain't just a whim,_

_You belong in Gryffindor!_

_But too was a man named Slytherin,_

_Cunning was what you needed to get in,_

_            But if you're like a fox,_

_            Can't get trapped in a box,_

_Then you belong in Slytherin!_

_Also there was a woman named Ravenclaw,_

_To whom picking unwise ones was a faux pas,_

_            If you were real smart,_

_            And on tests did your part,_

_You of course belonged in Ravenclaw!_

_And lastly, not leastly, was Hufflepuff,_

_Of the others' segregation she'd had enough,_

_            So she took all the rest,_

_            And taught them her best,_

_So if you don't fit in you're a Hufflepuff!_

            Everybody cheered, and the Sorting began.

            "Abraca, Debra!" A nervous-looking girl walked forward.

            The hat thought for a minute, then proclaimed, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

            Harry zoned out for a while, clapping whenever a Gryffindor was called.

            Finally, McGonagall called out, "Zygee, Sue!" She was sorted into Slytherin, and Harry got ready to chow down, vaguely remembering that there would be a total solar eclipse tomorrow, and Hogwarts would be the central point.

            Dumbledore stood up, and everybody licked their chops. "I know I usually only say, 'Let's eat' right now, but we have one more ceremony tonight," Dumbledore announced. "We would now like to give a very warm welcome to our exchange student, Tom Matthews."

            There was an excited murmur as the aforementioned Tom walked into the hall, smiling. He was about 5 feet, 8 and ¼ inches tall, with brown hair sprinkled with light, light blond, and had gray eyes with medium-sized blue specks.

            "Now, Mr. Matthews," Dumbledore continued, "if you would please proceed to the stool and put on the hat."

            Tom walked over to the stool and put on the Sorting Hat. The hat thought for about a minute before it yelled, "RAVENCLAW!"

            Luna was snapped out of her (usual) stupor and looked around for the source of the noise. The sudden movement caught Harry's eye, and he remembered he had never asked her about that stare she gave him when he arrived.

            Tom went to sit at the Ravenclaw table, and they all dug in.

            That night, Harry was lying in bed, wide awake despite eating tons of food, wondering what the stare had meant. Maybe she was only looking at him. But maybe not. He closed his eyes to think, and the next thing he knew, she was staring at him again. But right before his eyes, she changed. Her skin became chalky white and she grew about a foot and a half. Her stare went from disconcerting to evil, while her eyes became red and catlike. Her hair shortened, and her fingers grew until they looked like large pale spiders.

            Finally, she said in an evil, high-pitched voice, "I shall kill you, Harry Potter." Then Harry rolled out of bed and woke up.

            "Why the hell do I always have dreams like that?" Harry muttered under his breath, climbing back into bed.

            Suddenly, he gasped. There was a figure by the window. It didn't look anything like one of his roommates, because whoever it was was built along the lines of Crabbe and Goyle's fathers. Come to think of it, there were strange similarities in the shape.

            Then the man turned around, and he got a brief glimpse of a mean-looking face that _really_ needed a trim before he was knocked unconscious.

            Harry awoke suddenly to the sound of a woman screaming. He looked around for the source of the noise, but all he saw was that he was in a dungeon sparsely and tastelessly decorated with some chains on the wall, a dementor, the typical bars for the inside wall, the stereotype barred window on the rear wall, some torture instruments... _Hold on a sec_, Harry thought. He rewound his train of thought until he got to the second item in the list above. _Holy hell! I'm being guarded by a dementor!_ Well, that explained the screaming.

            Harry turned his head toward the door in the bars when he heard a creak. Actually, it was more like a _CREEEEEEEEEEEEK_, but you get the picture. Stepping into the cell was the same man that had kidnapped him. The man grinned broadly. "Ah, good, you're awake," he said.

            "Who are you?" Harry asked.

            "Hey, I'M the one asking the questions here!" the man snarled. "No, wait," the man said, seeming to remember something. "I'm not supposed to interrogate you... something about 'unnecessary information'... but anyhow..." The man thought for a second. "Oh yeah! I'm supposed to tell you what's going on, because Lord Voldemort thinks for some reason that in stories such as this, the hero's obligated to find out what the bad guy's big plan is." With that, he launched into an explanation at hyperspeed. "You get all that?" he asked when he finished.

            "Er... no, actually," Harry replied. "Would ya mind slowing down just a tad?"

            The man groaned. "Fine," he said. "Here we go.

            "My name is Tom Matthews."

            "Hey, you go to my school!" Harry interrupted. "But you can't be Tom Matthews. Unless you're one of those..." He thought for a second. "Um... shapeshiftymabobs."

            "Uh, yeah, I'm a Metamorphmagus," Matthews responded. "I'm also being put under the Imperius Curse by Voldemort himself, because I show such great resistance to it.

            "Anyhow, I'm Tom Matthews. I'm a Metamorphmagus who goes to your school under Voldemort's Imperius Curse. I'm acting as a spy, and I'm also trying to get close to your friends. Now, here's the short version of the plan.

            "I'm going to kidnap one of your friends for Voldemort, I haven't been told who yet. After that, I'm going to bring him/her to Voldemort to torture to death in front of you to provoke you into dueling him to the death. After he kills you, he will be unstoppable and will take over the world. The end."

            "That's the whole plan?" Harry asked incredulously. "You _do_ realize you have to fill more than four chapters, right?"

            "Of course," Matthews said. "Which is why you will escape, as usual, and when we finally get your friend and lure you back, the Order of the Phoenix will interfere. That'll make it _so_ much longer."

            "Oh." Harry was speechless for a second. "Well, that'd work." He happened to look down and noticed the wand on his belt. He briefly thought, _They were actually stupid enough to leave me with my wand?_ before he grabbed it and blasted his restraints off.

            "See?" Matthews said. "I told you you'd escape."

            "Right," Harry said. "So, I won't be seeing you, since you'll be shipped back to America."

            "Who the hell are you kidding?" Matthews said. "I've got this great memory charm I developed myself that enables one to make one's opponent forget whatever one wants them too." He grinned evilly. "_Nurilicio!_" A purple beam with rainbow polka-dots shot out of his wand and hit Harry square in the chest.

            Harry didn't feel a thing. He grinned. "Is that all you got... um... uh..." Damn! He couldn't remember the guy's name!

            "No, it's not, Harry, but it's all I'm gonna hit you with, because it's all I need." The man grinned. "Buh-bye now!"

            Harry ran for all he was worth and suddenly remembered that he had passed his Apparition test the previous summer. He concentrated on Hogsmeade, and disappeared with a _pop!_

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So, do you like? Please give me more reviews! Thanks again to those who have already!


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